History comes alive on Saturday, September 20, 2014, with “Creating your Legacy,” at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum from 10:30 a.m. to Noon. Arts Alive! is a three event series of behind the scenes cultural tours for members and their friends eager to engage their mind and spirit by rubbing shoulders with the creative process. Tickets $10 for members; $15 for nonmembers. Limited availability!

The Lehigh County Heritage Museum touts itself as a “facility that houses one of the finest historical research libraries in the state of Pennsylvania,” with 6 galleries encompassing 13,000 square feet. The Heritage Museum is one of the Lehigh Valley’s greatest treasure troves; the entire 30,000 square foot facility houses a collection with “more than 35,000 historical artifacts, 80,000 vintage photographs, and nearly 3-million documents.” The Heritage Museum is also home to the caretakers of Lehigh Valley’s history—seven employees are responsible for maintaining the collection’s integrity.

Creating your Legacy, on September 20th, will be led by one of the Heritage Museum’s proud caretakers, Chief Curator Jill Youngken. She was awarded the “History Prize” for outstanding scholarship during her undergraduate education at Moravian College, before completing her Master’s Degree at Rutgers University. Certified in Archival Studies, she has presided over the Lehigh County Historical Society’s unique antiques for 17 years. Youngken began her career at the Historical Society as an educator before becoming the director of the Heritage Museum’s library and archives; her responsibilities now include overseeing the museum’s 3-million historical documents.

Chief Curator Jill Youngken will offer attendees a glimpse into the lives of notable Lehigh Valley natives through rare personal relics. She will show attendees how to uncover their family legacy—and leave one for future generations!

Pittsburgh is establishing a comprehensive growth plan to “right size” the city after years of population loss. Year one has already been completed with thousands of residents taking part in helping to shape a way forward for Pennsylvania’s second largest city.

This plan, which is expected to be completed in 2014, will focus on the following areas in order:

Open spaces and parks – wrapping up

Cultural heritage and preservation – up and running

The next ten have yet to be started:

Transportation

Public art

Design

Energy

City-owned buildings

Infrastructure

Economic development

Housing

Education

Zoning

Land Use

The Pittsburgh planning department is enthusiastically seeking participation from city residents! The cost of this long-range plan is $2.3 million dollars. Cities are not required to submit comprehensive plans but they can opt to do so. Only a handful of cities have done this. Pittsburgh is once again being a leading innovator in their approach to managed growth and sustainability.

These components were not accidentally chosen. Open space is first because vacant land use will influence every other category on the list. Pittsburgh has 5,500 acres of open space. Half is parks and 14,000 vacant lots make up the rest. Pittsburgh realizes that green space has an impact on property values.

These meetings last two hours and are held on various nights and in several locations around Pittsburgh to maximize citizen involvement.

Pittsburgh is consistently ranked as one of America’s most livable cities.